Her First Mistake hits the broad strokes of a romantic suspense novel, but it’s just honestly a 3 star read. I just found myself getting confused through so many timelines and then changing perspectives. I am curious enough to read the second book in this series, because I wonder if Elliot is able to course correct on this one. There was just so much information spewed our way and I do wonder how she’s going to marry up Noelle finding out the truth about a lot of things that she had not been able to remember for 13 years.
Her First Mistake follows detective Noelle Marshall. Noelle is still dealing with the fact that her second husband, Derrick Bell, was an assemblyman that was murdered 13 years ago. She was left for dead. Noelle has no memory of who attacked them, but her husband’s family still blames her for what happened. The FBI decided to re-investigate which starts to cause Noelle to recall things from her past. The book shifts between Noelle 13 years ago; present day and then different timelines with her with her husband years before his murder; a FBI agent who was assigned the case 13 years ago, Alice Pratmore; and FBI agent Max Rhodes. We also get several appearances from one of Elliot’s other characters, Mercy Kilpatrick.
I really can’t say I got a great handle on Noelle in this one. Probably because we get to see a glimpse of her as a cool and confident woman, and then most of the book is her and her marriage with Derrick which turned her into someone else. The latter part of the book has her feeling something with agent Rhodes, but I didn’t see it or buy it honestly. Some of the characters though felt very developed like agent Pratmore. I honestly think I would have liked a book that followed her investigation.
The ending was a lot. There is a lot of revelations and I had a hard time with the reveal.
